Links for 2015-09-23

In July 2015, CARB did some follow up testing and again the cars failed—the scrubber technology was present, but off most of the time. How this happened is pretty neat. Michigan’s Stefanopolou says computer sensors monitored the steering column. Under normal driving conditions, the column oscillates as the driver negotiates turns. But during emissions testing, the wheels of the car move, but the steering wheel doesn’t. That seems to have have been the signal for the “defeat device” to turn the catalytic scrubber up to full power, allowing the car to pass the test. Stefanopolou believes the emissions testing trick that VW used probably isn’t widespread in the automotive industry. Carmakers just don’t have many diesels on the road. And now that number may go down even more.

The Safe Harbor agreement does not do enough to protect EU citizen’s private information when it reached the United States, Yves Bot, Advocate General at the European Court of Justice (ECJ), said. While his opinions are not binding, they tend to be followed by the court’s judges, who are currently considering a complaint about the system in the wake of revelations from ex-National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden of mass U.S. government surveillance.

Initially I thought they were just tracking client state on the phone, but it actually sounds like they’re replicating other users’ state, too. Mad stuff! Must cost a fortune in additional data transfer costs…